Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Doing The Best You Can

Meeting Our Own Expectations

It isn't always easy to meet the expectations we hold ourselves to. We may find ourselves in a situation such as just finishing a relaxing yoga class or meditation retreat, a serene session of deep breathing, or listening to some calming, soul-stirring music, yet we have difficulty retaining our sense of peace. A long line at the store, slow-moving traffic, or another stressful situation can unnerve you and leave you wondering why the tranquility and spiritual equilibrium you cultivate is so quick to dissipate in the face of certain stressors. You may feel guilty and angry at yourself or even feel like a hypocrite for not being able to maintain control after practicing being centered. However, being patient with yourself will help you more in your soul's journey than frustration at your perceived lack of progress. Doing the best you can in your quest for spiritual growth is vastly more important than striving for perfection.

Just because you are devoted to following a spiritual path, attaining inner peace, or living a specific ideology doesn't mean you should expect to achieve perfection. When you approach your personal evolution mindfully, you can experience intense emotions such as anger without feeling that you have somehow failed. Simply by being aware of what you are experiencing and recognizing that your feelings are temporary, you have begun taking the necessary steps to regaining your internal balance. Accepting that difficult situations will arise from time to time and treating your reaction to them as if they are passing events rather than a part of who you are can help you move past them. Practicing this form of acceptance and paying attention to your reactions in order to learn from them will make it easier for you to return to your center more quickly in the future.

Since your experiences won't be similar to others' and your behavior will be shaped by those experiences, you may never stop reacting strongly to the challenging situations you encounter. Even if you are able to do nothing more than acknowledge what you are feeling and that there is little you can do to affect your current circumstances, in time you'll alter your reaction to such circumstances. You can learn gradually to let negative thoughts come into your mind, recognize them, and then let them go. You may never reach a place of perfect peace, but you'll find serenity in having done your best.


For more information contact Toby Christensen - The Healing Drummer / toby@healingdrummer.com

Toby Christensen is a facilitator of healing and positive change using the power of sound. He is a Master Drummer, Spiritual Teacher, Shamanic Practitioner, and an Ordained Minister. With experience as a corporate executive, entrepreneur, public speaker, musician, and spiritual leader, Toby relates to a wide range of human experience. He connects with compassion and deep understanding to the struggles and challenges of everyday life with a proactive, solution oriented methodology. In his work with indigenous shamans, healers, medicine people and contemporary teachers, Toby has developed a treatment modality known as “Sound Attunement Therapy” which initiates the process he calls “Bio-Energetic Reconfiguration.” This process integrates the powerful methods of old world shamanism with the most cutting edge understanding of quantum physics. Empowered through the treatment of “Sound Attunement Therapy” (SAT) Toby uses sound and drum healing as a container for people to shed their old patterns of ill health, dissatisfaction and dysfunction and shift their energy to create a new healthy and satisfying life.

Born and Raised in Seattle Washington, Toby started his career as a professional musician at the young age of 16 playing the jazz, rock, and funk clubs of Seattle. After having a spiritual awakening, he moved to Northern California to undergo his ministerial training and was then recruited as an associate pastor at Christian Life Center in Santa Rosa, CA. (At the time one of the largest non-denominational churches in the western United States) Toby left the church disillusioned by the “business of religion” and began a career in the corporate world. He began to work his way up the corporate ladder with Nordstrom with great success. After advancing quickly, Toby was recruited as Executive Vice President of All American Sales, where he was responsible for the sales and marketing of athletic products nationwide.

After years of corporate success at the cost of his soul, Toby woke up to the call of his heart, that ignited his passion and reconnected him to the drum. He now travels the world facilitating positive changes in peoples lives through the power of sound. Although Toby will never refer to himself as a Drum Healer or a Sound Healer. The term is used in reference to his work because of the common understanding of the term Drum Healing or Sound Healing within the context of our culture. As Toby Christensen puts it “I use rhythm and sound to facilitate positive change in all aspects of peoples lives. I am not the healer, the being I am holding space for is. I just hold the space and make some noise so their healer will wake up!”

Toby Christensen is a Master Drummer and Shamanic Practitioner, who has over 30 years of professional drumming experience. He has toured internationally with rock and gospel music groups and has performed frequently as a ritual drummer in both African and Native American ceremony. He is trained on the trap set, the African Djembe, congas and the hoop drum also known as the Shaman's Drum. He has studied in Africa with Sobonfu and Malidoma Some’ from the Dagara Tribe in Burkina Faso, Chief Nana Depah of Ghana, and in the U.S. with a Chief of the Lakota Nation and other Native American teachers. He is a Ritual drummer for Sobonfu Some’ here in the U.S. and has studied Shamanism with Michael Harner and the Foundation for Shamanic Studies.

SOUND ATTUNEMENT THERAPY

Sound attunement Therapy is the use of vibrational energy in a process which brings the mind, body, emotions, and psyche of an individual or group into harmony.

Recent studies suggest that therapeutic drumming increases immune system function, controls pain, relieves stress, and has been successful in treating serious conditions such as substance abuse, alcoholism, AIDS, adrenal failure, high blood pressure and cancer.

Other research suggests that therapeutic drumming is also effective for treating emotional disorders such as depression, anger, and anxiety.

Sound Attunement Therapy works by producing a bio-energetic reconfiguration of a person's energy system which affects the physical body, mind, and emotions. It produces the energetic structure to promote heal and restore a person’s natural healthy rhythms. Bio-Energetic Reconfiguration‘is the transformation or rearrangement of energy in and between living organisms and between living organisms and their environment, to enhance self-awareness, well-being and relieve physical, spiritual, and emotional maladies.

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